Lyrical
by PalisDelon
Summary: A series of unrelated song inspired stories. Latest chapter is based on the movie musical Grease 2.
1. You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This

It was odd the pattern Cain had fallen into since the eclipse and the fall of the witch. The day-to-day was spent with a handful of other Tin Men who had survived the years since the last stand, they were working to rebuild the force and clean up Central City; rough, dirty, hard work. But once a month Cain would visit the barber, pick up his good suit from the cleaners, shower well, and go off to the royal palace for another ball.

The Queen had set up these monthly balls as a way for the people of the O.Z. to get to know the royal family again. To see first hand the once-possessed Azkadellia, who would much rather be called Dellia, and the Other Side raised Dorothy, DG to only her closest friends.

As he entered the ballroom Cain scanned the crowd, "Looking for me?"

Cain turned to find DG wearing a green sleeveless dress and holding out a drink for him, all part of the pattern they had fallen into over the last three years. Cain took a large sip of the drink, next would be a short conversation on what each had been up to since the ball, and then they would dance for a few hours before Cain would head back to his apartment.

"So, Raw was here for three days." DG was smiling, "Mother was having some talks with the King of E.V. and wanted to be sure what he was offering was sincere."

"Glad to hear the furball is being useful some how." Cain replied, then smirked as DG punched him lightly.

Then the orchestra was starting a new song and Cain held out his hand to lead DG to the floor.

The whole pattern had started four months after the eclipse, Raw had gone back to his home and Glitch was Ambrose again and had wanted to work more then dance, so DG was the only one at the ball that he knew. They had only danced together once that time, Cain had a bit to much of the drinking portion, but the next month DG had found him before he could get to the booze. After that it had just become what they did. Sure they both had widened their social circle over the past years, but at every ball they would only dance with each other. Cain had over heard stories about how he and DG were a perfect pair, but dancing was as far it went.

The set ended and Cain escorted DG off the floor where a waiter with a tray of drinks was standing.

DG murmured a thank you to the waiter then walked over to one of the windows. Cain followed a few steps behind and just watched her look at the stars for minute before he spoke up, "There's a different feel about you tonight." DG glanced at him over her shoulder, "And what's that suppose to mean?" Cain shook his head, "I don't know. Maybe this wines just got me thinkin' a lot of crazy things."

DG stepped forward and took the glass from his hand and put it down on the window sill, "Then maybe we should work all that crazy out of your system." DG said with a nod to the dance floor.

They made it through a set and a half without a mis-step when the orchestra started a slow rumba, one of DG's favorites. But instead of the patterned wink and half smile DG gave before they did one of 'those types' of dances, she just tucked her head into his shoulder.

"I think you were right." Cain could feel her breath on his neck and it was like something shot right through him. "I do feel different tonight." DG continued.

Cain ignored the way his heart skipped a beat in time and manged to ask, "Different how?"

He could swear he felt electricity as DG raised her head and answered, "Different in my arms and my chest. Different sultry."

There was a flash of light when her lips touched his, and for a second Cain felt something move inside of him that had never moved before. But then DG pulled back, and there was the "let's cause trouble" wink.

Cain got a funny feeling in the space over his stomach, it had just been an act.

"You shouldn't kiss me like this." DG stiffened in his arms. Cain nodded his head towards the crowd, "They're always watching you, ready to pick apart your every move, to say things, true or not, to anyone who will listen. If they see you kiss me like this, they'll never believe we're just friends..."

"When did you start caring so much about what other people think!" DG stepped away and started to make her way through the crowd of dancing couples.

Cain managed to catch her just after she exited the ballroom, "DG, why are you so upset? You're the one who told me about the way palace life is." Cain could see tears slowly rolling down DG's cheeks, "It's nothing." DG wiped her cheek "I just thought maybe..." DG 's voice hitched and she let out a soft gasping sob and Cain felt his heart crunch. "Thought what darlin'?"

"Nothing." DG shook her head "It's getting late. You should probably be leaving." then she flashed him a smile, a false smile. Cain felt like he had been slapped.

"Well then..." Cain took a step back "I'll see you around." He turned and started to walk towards the door. He put his hand on the knob, but couldn't find the strength to turn it. "Unless..." He turned back to look at DG. "Unless you mean it like that."

"What?"

"You see, there are times when we're dancing that I can close my eyes and I don't know where I'm at with you." Cain started walking slowly back towards DG. "I get so lost out on that dance floor, just havin' you spin 'round and 'round in my arms." Cain reached a hand out and cupped DG's cheek, "So when you kiss me like this," Cain leaned in and pressed his lips to DG's for a moment, "I think you mean it like that."

Cain kept his eyes closed until he heard DG breath out, "Wyatt"

He opened his eyes as he said, "Yeah."

"Kiss me again."


	2. Ticks

Cain didn't remember how she had managed to talk him into this: they were way to exposed, to far from the castle, to far from...

Ah, who was he trying to fool. This party in the resistance fighters camp was DG style, much more then that stuffy shindig that was going on in the palace and with all eyes looking to the fancy doings no one would look twice at a bonfire.

Cain glanced over at DG, sitting on a log drinking from a small jar being passed around, the smoke from the fire lent a softness to the picture.

The softness flew away when DG's shirt road up and Cain was give a view of the top half of a butterfly. For a second Cain found himself wondering what the other half looked like, but that train of thought was interrupted when some fighter sat down next to DG and leaned over to say something in her ear. From the blush the spread over DG's face Cain had a good idea what the man had just asked and no way was _that_ going to happen.

Cain stood and walked over to DG. Without even looking at the man next to her Cain held out his and pulled DG up.

"Time to go?" DG asked.

Cain nodded and felt his throat go dry as DG pressed herself to his side. "Lead on, Oh wise one!"

Cain knew that the shortest way back to the palace would take them right through the cheering crowd, so instead he headed off into the woods.

After a ten minutes or so DG asked, "How do you know this area so well?"

"I use to hunt here as a boy."

"So no chance of us getting lost then?"

Cain chuckled, "Don't worry, I've got your back."

"_I'd get your front too."_ Cain's chuckle stopped suddenly as that thought flashed in his head.

Another five minutes found the two entering the palace through a servants door.

"That was fun." DG once they were safely in her room. "Anytime Princess." Cain said the a short bow.

DG let out a laugh and opened her arms and knocked Cain's world sideways with a quick kiss.

"Goodnight Cain." She said then stepped back and let herself flop onto the bed.

DG sat up with a jerk when Cain took off her shoe. "Cain?" she asked as he took off her other shoe "What are you doing?"

Cain looked down at her, "After all that time we spent in the woods, I gotta cheek you for ticks."


	3. Learn To Do It

D.G.'s head felt like it was going to explode, for the last few weeks Tutor and Glitch had been trying to catch her up on fifteen years of history and deportment lessons.

"You were born in a palace by the sea." Tutor said.

"A palace by the sea." D.G. echoed him, "Can it be?"

Oh it was official. She was rhyming, exploding head was the next step.

Tutor raised an eyebrow, "Yes, that's right." He went on to the next step in her timeline, "You rode horseback when you were only three."

"Horseback riding?" Did the man not remember any of that ride from the Gray Gale to the Witch's Tower? "Me?"

"The horse, he was... um... um... white!" Glitch stood up and shook his head for a second. "You made faces and terrorized the cook!" He said proud of two recalled memories in a row.

D.G. put a look of mock horror on her face, "Was I wild?"

Glitch knocked her on the chin, "You wrote the book, doll."

Tutor was quick to cut in, "But you'd behave when your father gave that look!"

D.G. took a deep breath, every day for the past week Tutor and Glitch, mostly Tutor, had been telling her facts about her life. "But I don't remember what that look looks like. Other then the time right before the witch, I don't remember any of it."

Glitch knelt down next to her, "The mind is a tricky thing. Sometimes if I can't remember something, I'll try to guess."

"Guess?"

"Imagine how it was, D.G." Glitch smiled widely, "Your long-forgotten past!"

Tutor cleared his throat and pulled out a chart with a long list of names printed on it. Next, you must memorize the names of the royalty." Pointing to a name on a side branch he said, "Now here we have Kropotkin."

Glitch leaned in and whispered, " Shot Potemkin, in the buttkin."

D.G. choked back the laugh that was swelling up in her.

"And dear old uncle Vanya." Tutor continued.

"The man loved his vodka."

"Now then." Tutor poked Glitch with the pointer. "The Baron Pushkin..." He looked at D.G.

Not a quiz! "He was...?" Crap!

Beside her Glitch piped up, "Short! Ow!"

Tutor poked him with the pointer again. "Count Anatoly."

"Had a... ?" She knew this one.

"Wart! Ow!" This time it was D.G. who poked Glitch 

"Count Sergei?"

D.G. didn't even had a chance to open her mouth before Glitch said, "Wore a feathered hat."

"I hear he's gotten very fat." It was Tutors laughing response that let D.G. know that the lesson was over for the morning. She stood up and brushed her pants off. As she walked away from the two men she yelled over her shoulder, "And I recall his yellow cat!"

A smile spread over Tutors face. "I don't believe we told her that."

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The next day found D.G. in the dinning room going over table manners. Word had come that an envoy from I. X. would be coming next week. So Tutor was forgoing the history for a more, practical, subject matter.

"Now, elbows in and sit up straight."

D.G. felt like a doll at a tea party, being poked and prodded into the proper form.

"And never slurp the stroganoff."

D.G. could feel her nose scrunch, "I never cared for stroganoff."

"Well, it's the national dish of the Inner Xerotes, so you'll have to eat it."

D.G. scrunched her nose again, "And what's up with the name? Xerotes?"

Tutor let out a sigh, "Xerotes means not being covered by a liquid."

"Wait, they're islands?" D.G. let her head fall into her hand. "Why does everything have to be so wordy. It can't be a projector, it's a trans-dimensional time loop. It's not an island, it's a xerote!" She took a deep breath and looked up at Tutor. "And then you wonder why I'm having sure a hard time."

Tutor brushed off her rant, "The Samovar will come out after the main course, but before the caviar."

"Then dessert and goodnight?" D.G. asked, there was hope after all!

"Not until you get this right." D.G. let out a groan.

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After that lovely day trapped in the dinning room with Tutor D.G. thought that having Glitch teach her would be a blast. God was she wrong.

"All right...I'm ready." She said as she came out of her room wearing the fluffiest dress she had ever seen.

Glitch eyed her critically, "Now, shoulders back and stand up tall."

D.G. took a deep breath, then walked down the stairs for the hundredth time that day.

"Again." Glitch said and sent her back up.

"Stupid dress, stupid envoy, stupid stairs." She was so lost in her grumbling she almost walked into the man standing at the top.

"Hey there princess." Cain started to cough and brought a fist up to his mouth. "That's some dress."

"Shove it."

"And this time do not walk, but try to float!" Glitch's voice yelled up to her.

D.G. turned to start down the stairs, again, when she was surprised by Cain offering her his arm. Blushing she placed her hand on his forearm and they started the trek down.

"I feel a little foolish." D.G. admitted after a few steps. "You'll do fine." Cain replied.

"Am I floating?" She asked as she glanced to the side so she could see Cain's face. The tips of his ears were pink. "Like a little boat."

They reached the bottom and D.G. was waiting for Glitch to tell her to go back up. But instead Glitch poked Cain, "You give a bow."

Cain bent from the waist as he flipped his arm so he was holding D.G.'s hand. D.G.'s mind went blank. She turned to Glitch,"What happens now?" she asked.

"Your hand receives a kiss!" Glitch said and D.G. looked back at Cain. She caught his eyes, and right before his lips touched her hand, he winked at her and whispered. "If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it too."


	4. Whiskey Lullaby

Three month had past since the eclipse and the O.Z. had made rapid progress, but it the same time the O.Z. was healing DG was falling apart.

"_Go fuck yourself!"_

"_DG..."_

"_Why are you even here? Your mission is over, I'm safe, so why don't you just back the hell off!"_

"_DG..."_

"_I don't need you."_

After that Cain had quietly gone to his room, gathered his things, and left the castle. DG soon regretted her harsh words, but by then no one knew where he was.

It was two years before the report came.

"_I was in the bar waiting for my contact when I heard some of the regulars talking about a man named Cain."_

"_They were saying..."_

"_Go on captain."_

"_They said...He had been found face down in his pillow."_

"_Oh..."_

"_Ma'am, he was... that is... he was holding your picture."_

The report had gotten out and people started to talk, they never said anything to DG directly, but she heard all the same.

"_All those years in the iron suit..."_

"_It's amazing he lasted this long..."_

"_Just couldn't find a place for himself..."_

The first time the whiskey had left a rawness in the throat and a fire in her belly, but that soon turned to numbness. But even through the numbness he was still there, it was still her fault.

"_You should have hated me. Why didn't you hate me Wyatt?_

_I loved you, you know. No, you don't know. You don't know because I sent you away._

_And you loved me back. You loved me back and that's what killed you. It was me that killed you."_

Through the haze of her tears DG managed to open the bottom drawer of her nightstand. She pulled out his gun.

They found her the next morning with her face down in her pillow, next to her was a note that simply said, "I'll love him till I die."


	5. Wonderful Guy

Cain was concerned. Over the last few weeks DG's behavior had turned even more odd then normal. Well, not really her behavior, but her speech. There were Other Side expressions that she had started using that Cain had never heard before, and the frequency she was repeating them with had made Cain's trouble senses tingle. He needed outside help.

"Ah, Mr. Cain! What can I do for you?"

Cain cleared his throat, "Your Highness, I was wondering if you might, well, translate these for me." He handed a notepad to Consort Ahamo.

"DG to O.Z.?" The man laughed. "I'll try."

"I'm interested in the corn one." Cain said. "You'll see, she's used that the most."

"Corny as Kansas in August." Ahamo cocked his head and repeated the phrase.

"Well, it's a pun, Mr. Cain." Ahamo said distractedly as he walked over to his desk. "Kansas is farmland. You could travel from sun up to sun down and see nothing but fields. Corn and Sunflowers mostly."

"DG and Glitch had been up to something. She started laughing and just wouldn't stop. When I asked if she was alright she answered with that."

"Sounds like DG." Ahamo looked back at the notepad. "Are these all?"

Cain was confused, "Yes, sir."

"It's missing some." Ahamo said softly.

"Sir?"

"I'm as trite and as gay as a daisy in May." Ahamo 's hand was waving up and down"I'm bromidic and bright as a moon-happy night."

Cain was very confused.

"Pouring out on the dew!" Ahamo shouted.

"Sir?" Cain asked.

"I knew it was familiar. My sister was a musical theater nut." Ahamo said, as if that explained everything.

"Musical theater?" Cain was starting to wish that he had just chalked the sayings up as typical DG weirdness and left it at that.

"Like a play, but the plot is moved along by songs. My sister use to sing all the time." Ahamo's eyes glazed over for a moment, but then he shook it off and started humming.

"I think I got it." Ahamo said after a few seconds.

"I'm as corny as Kansas in August.

I'm as normal as blueberry pie.

Ah.. la da da da,

dee da da da da da.

Bum ba da da da da da da da."

Ahamo shot a weak smile to Cain.

"I'm as trite and as gay as a daisy in May.

A cliché comin' true.

I'm bromidic and bright as a moon

happy night

pourin' light on the dew."

It sounded as if Ahamo had remembered the song, Cain thought.

"I'm as corny as Kansas in August.

High as the flag on the Fourth of July.

If you'll excuse an expression I use..."

Ahamo suddenly stopped, a stunned look on his face.

"Shit."

Cain didn't think that was the next word.

"All these started a few weeks ago?" Ahamo asked.

"Yes, sir." Cain answered. "Just after the Anniversary Celebration."

"Has DG's been saying these phrases just to you, or has she been using them with everyone?" Ahamo asked.

"Just me, sir." Cain replied.

Ahamo sat in silence for a moment. "And did anything happen at the celebration that would..." Ahamo coughed. "That is... Was there anything that happened between DG and yourself?"

Cain's stomach dropped at the question while at the same time his mind replayed the way DG had moaned when he kissed her.

"The reason I ask," Ahamo said. "Is that the next line in the song is 'I'm in love with a wonderful guy'."


	6. Hardly A Hero

Wyatt Cain hadn't planned on being a hero.

And when asked he would say, "Hardly." He was just an ordinary man who had been thrown into a life he hadn't planned.

But when it came down to it it didn't matter what he said, his friends said he was a hero, the Queen said he was a hero, the whole kingdom said he was a hero, so that was that.

The Queen had rewarded him by giving him a title, land, and a high position in the court. Suddenly his life had changed radically, instead of waking at dawn, putting in a hard days work, and going to bed with the sun, Cain found himself attending party after party that lasted into the early hours, sometimes going to bed just as the sun was rising.

On the first anniversary of the eclipse Wyatt had put on the uniform that the Queen had ordered made for him, and appeared in the main square of Central City along side Raw, Glitch, and DG. The crowd that had turned out cheered so loudly that Cain's ears had rung for two days. Afterwords the four of them had sat up late just talking

Some time after the first bottle of wine Raw and Glitch had left, but he and DG opened another bottle. They talked for some time, but then talking turned to kissing, and then kissing turned to in to some thing more.

When Cain awoke in the morning, his thoughts spun around in his head. This shouldn't have happened. He was the one who took the noble path, he wasn't the type of man to have a drunken roll in the hay.

Yet here he was with a sleeping DG draped half over him. For so long he had been the one who wanted what he could never have and last night it seemed as if every thing he hadn't let him self think of was within his reach.

The cold light of day slapped that thought away. And so he slowly rolled away from DG, got out of the bed, dressed, and slipped out the door.

The next party he had looked for DG, he needed to try and explain himself, but when he finally found her she was on the arm of some young Duke and his resolve grew weak.

He pulled a cloak of bravado around himself and continued through the party, and the next party, and the party after that, and the one after that.

On the second anniversary of the eclipse Wyatt had put on the uniform that the Queen had ordered made for him, and appeared in the main square of Central City along side Raw, Glitch, and DG. The crowd that had turned out cheered loudly and afterwords Glitch had rushed back to a council meeting and Raw slipped away to visit the memorial that had been unveiled the day before.

The sound of the crowd could still be faintly heard, "Hail the great hero." DG said, then turned to leave.

"The ones I love always seem to be the ones who pay the price."

She stopped, but kept her back to him.

"I get so exuberant and terrified every single time I look into your eyes, DG." He confessed softly. "But we both know I'm not the man you thought I was, and I should even entertain the thought."

DG finally turned around, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"But yet, I'd still give anything to have a chance to get you back, to let love you again and I'm hardly a hero for that."


	7. Reproduction

D.G. was going through withdrawal.

For a land of muti-colored mini men and dogs made of tree bark there were a surprising amount of crossover in pop culture; D.G. had almost fallen over in shock the one day when Glitch had said that something was "inconceivable" and Cain countered with "I don't think it means what you think it mean."

But for all of D.G.'s favorite books and music and movies that were in the O.Z. there was one that wasn't and for the last three weeks D.G. had been craving the new class of Ridell High.

Oh, she had watched "Grease" several times in the hope _that_ would end the craving, but it was like eating milk chocolate when you wanted dark chocolate, close but not it.

And now everywhere she looked, everything she heard, it all reminded her of the one thing she couldn't have.

* * *

"D.G.!"

"Sorry Tutor."

"As I was saying, with the papay trees The parts of a flower are so constructed that very, very often the wind will cause pollination. If not, then a bee or any other nectar gathering creature can create the same situation."

D.G. nearly fell off her chair.

"So it was quite the mystery when the fields started to die."

_The flower's insatiable passion turns its life into a circus of debauchery! _

"Do you have a question D.G.?"

She kept had to herself from smirking as she asked, "Where does the pollen go?"

* * *

That afternoon D.G. was sitting in one of the receiving rooms with her family. It was some thing to do with a new rotation of bodyguards or something like that. She, her mother and father had already asked their questions and it was Az's turn. If Az was brief then D.G. might just have some extra time before she had her next lesson!

"Mr. Rogerts, I read in your bio that you are a four time regional hand-to-hand champion. You look like you're not even old enough to shave and the you could be knocked over by a stiff wind"

Today the part of the heartless bitch would be played by Az. Ahamo had done it last time.

"Yes miss, I did. I won the first title when I was 16." He didn't back down from Az's stare. "And looks can be deceiving."

"Mr. Stuart, is it true that guys like you, you know, mature and all," Az said that like she was talking to the dirt on her shoe. "Carry some protection with them..."

_For sexual occasion?_

"Even when they are in the bathroom?"

"That's when you're at you most vulnerable." Stuart replied.

Az looked the guards over for another minute before saying, "I'm done."

The guards left by one door and D.G. ran out another, she need to bleach the last five minutes from her mind.

* * *

After dinner D.G. met up with Cain for shooting practice

As she followed Cain through the gymnasium she could see guards fighting each other with hands and feet, with foils and broadswords, with sticks and nunchakus , but there was one thing D.G. didn't see.

"Um... Cain?"

"Yeah?"

D.G. motioned to the scene around them, "I don't think they even know what a pistol is."

Cain glanced at the room, then back to D.G. and patted his hip, "I've got your pistol right here."

That was when D.G. finally cracked and slid to the floor laughing.

* * *

"How long D.G. been like this?"

D.G. could hear the concern in Raw's voice and sat up. "I'm fine, Raw. Really."

"D.G. sad." Raw said in a soft voice.

"Not sad, just..." D.G. thought for a minute. "Just homesick."

Raw stroked her hair, "What D.G. homesick for?"

She could feel her checks warming up. "It's silly."

"Not silly, if it make D.G. happy."

"He's right, doll." D.G. smiled as Glitch slipped into the room. "It doesn't matter how small or silly something is if it makes you happy."

D.G. took a deep breath, if she couldn't tell her friends what she wanted then who could she tell? "There's this movie, Grease 2. It was one of my..."

Glitch cut her off, "Grease 2?"

D.G. nodded, "Yeah, Sandy's cousin, Michale moves in with his aunt and uncle and ends up at Ridell for his last year of school. He falls for Stephanie, who's the leader of the Pink Ladies, but she says she'll only date a T-Bird, so Michale...

"Grease 2?" Glitch repeated.

"Yeah, Glitch." D.G. smiled at her friend.

"Grease 2?"

"Oh, geeze. He's glitching again." D.G. moved to shake her addle-minded friend.

"Not glitching." Raw said as he stopped her. Suddenly Glitch spring back to movement.

"There's a second Grease and no one told me?"

"It's only on Earth, Glitch." D.G. prompted softly. "That's why I've been acting weird."

"The hell it is." Glitch spun around and headed for the door. "I'm calling up a travel storm, pronto!"


End file.
